Microsoft is celebrating the return of the legendary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage musical event - which starts this weekend - by bringing select performances into homes around the globe April 28–30 and May 5–7, according to the JazzFest 2006 Web site.

MSN has entered into an agreement with the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to be the exclusive webcast provider of the first Jazz Fest following the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina and will donate all the advertising proceeds to benefit New Orleans Katrina Relief efforts.

The webcast is scheduled to include concert performances by globally popular artists such as Jimmy Buffett, Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, as well as New Orleans music legends including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Buckwheat Zydeco, and more artists to be announced. Viewers can tune in to the festival coverage at msnvideo.com/jazzfest.

NEW ORLEANS - Last time I wrote you from here, dear Orleanians, I tried to tell you to bet against the Saints. Did you listen?

Now, according to the Times-Picayune, conventional wisdom says when your defense is ranked No. 32 in a 32-team league it needs help. It needs more than help, my laid back friends, but never mind. Just bet against them. You will prosper.

And what would New Orleans be without a great boondoggle or two?

Fore! Golf Course Is the Latest Boondoggle

“Perhaps you are wondering whether Benson and the Tournament Players Club will decide to forgo their loot out of concern for the poor and uninsured masses,” local columnist James Gill says. “Don’t be a chump.”

What’s worse? The school system, where the state threatens to take over New Orleans’ failing schools any day now.

With the public demand for a state takeover of the New Orleans public schools increasing, a handful of bills filed for the legislative session starting today could let the state appoint someone to run a local school system or, at least, control its finances, the Times-Picayune reported.

“I think there is a lot of public sentiment in favor of a takeover,” said Orleans Parish School Board member Una Anderson.

Duh. At this rate, we may as well just cancel high school and lock them all up. The AP is simultaneously reporting a growing prison population at a rate of about 900 inmates every week. Prisons and jails in the U.S. held 2.1 million people - one in every 138 residents.

It’s most likely higher here in Louisiana, where prisons are a growth industry.

Then, what would the Big Easy be without complainers here on the bayou, where the big question is?

“Since Britney Spears is from south Louisiana, how come she’s never played the Jazzfest?”

That about sums it up, folks. A check of cable news shows it is back to Michael Jackson all the time.

They may as well keep up with the progress of Britney’s pregnancy, since they have no associate producers left who could understand what it means for a state to take over an entire major city’s education system - or take on the question of why so many Americans are in jail.

Photo by Dave Stueber

The “Zydeco Sweetheart” plays to the camera.

One of the things people will talk about when the Jazz and Heritage Festival for the year 2005 comes up will be the unusual dry wind swirling in from the north and west. It definitely kept festival goers much cooler than usual for a city known for its hot and humid swampy air.

For locals, this was the first Jazzfest since 1970 that a shower was not immediately required after a full day at the Fairgrounds.

The highlight of the day for Sunday, at least for me, was catching Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys do their own sweet, sexy version of “Brown Sugar.”

The lyrics are not exactly publishable in a family newspaper - or a blog. You just had to be there.

Gambit Weekly says the 36th annual event has “one of the festival’s most exciting lineups” in its history, including the reclusive Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame.

The second weekend starting Thursday, April 28, has a fantastic lineup too. If the weather holds out, it may be the coolest Jazzfest on record.

As they say on the bayou, Le Bon Temps Roule, let the good times roll.

Locust Fork Editor and Publisher Glynn Wilson will be at the New Orleans Jazzfest all day today relaxing in his red coleman easy chair under the big oak tree across from the Fais Do Do stage, where they play Zydeco music and cajun dance all day long.

Check out the Fais Do Do cam and you might catch a glimpse.

There will be more blogging tonight.